BUSINESS

The Australian share market closed higher yesterday and overnight the European and U.S. markets gathered pace, but our market lost ground at the start of trade, even with higher gold, metal and oil prices overnight.

Google came out Thursday blazing with impressive numbers as the internet giant reported a general profit of $US2.79 billion in the second quarter, which was backed by an overall revenue of $US12.21 billion.

Skills Minister Chris Evans warned on Thursday that low-skills jobs are fast disappearing from the Australian economy due to technology and structural changes. To address this growing problem, the federal government launched the Australian Workforce and Productivity Agency (AWPA).

As more Australian consumer opt to shop from online stores than bricks-and-mortar outlets, the federal government decided to monitor the sector in a bid to understand better the behaviour of shoppers amid the slump in the country's retail industry.

By Luke Burgess, Investment U ResearchMost investors are skeptical when you tell them that they can actually buy silver below spot prices.

Australian mining giant Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO) announced on Thursday that it will declare some redundancies on its Clermont Mine in central Queensland which has a total of 770 workers and opened only in 2010.

By Greg PeelThe Dow rose 34 points or 0.3% while the S&P gained 0.3% to 1373 and the Nasdaq added 0.8%.

The Australian share market moved back into the black today, following strong production reports from energy players and a positive offshore lead. Strong earnings results from a number of US companies, including chipmaker Intel, saw the Dow Jones Index rose almost 1pct. Locally the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) rallied to close higher by 80pts or 1.9pct to 4236.4.

Qantas Airways, one of the biggest Airline companies in Australia, recently disclosed that they are ditching RIM's Blackberry over Apple's iPhone for their employees. Qantas Airways also revealed that they have selected Microsoft Office 365 platform over Google for their upcoming hybrid cloud computing environment.

Australia has given Abu Dhabi's air carrier Etihad Airways the go signal to expand to 10 per cent its stake control in Virgin Australia.

The sentiments aired by the late Steve Jobs about Apple's rival operating system, Android, will not be considered once the Apple-Samsung patent contest begins at the end of the month.

Are You Stalking Your Ex in Facebook? New Research Shows 88% Stalking Their Ex in Facebook

Microsoft Corp. have finally announced the official release date for their latest OS, Windows 8. Windows 8 would be officially be available on October 26, 2012.

IBM recently disclosed the company's second quarter financial report and revealed that IBM experienced growth in terms of profit but had a revenue drop in terms of hardware.

The U.S. Apple online store went offline a while ago for a site update and it's "We'll be back" message was translated in 18 languages. After it went back online by 6:00 a.m. Eastern (3 a.m. Pacific), it now offers a text messaging update service for customers.

More home brands are expected to hit the local supermarket shelves over the next five years, a new report said, sustaining the latest trend in the grocery sector that benefits both retailers and consumers.

The new Metro user interface will indeed light up computer screens in late October as Microsoft confirmed in a blog post on Wednesday that Windows 8 will roll out starting the 26th of July, likely reinvigorating the world's flagging interest on personal computers.

While Coles and Woolworths are busy battling their price wars, Costco is building its capacity in a bid to become the third major supermarket in Australia.

Due to the popularity of private label goods on the shelves of Coles and Woolworths, a new study released in Thursday forecast that by 2017, the share of such products would make up one-third of total supermarket sales.

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) announced on Thursday that it will freeze the salaries of 400 senior bankers who earn more than $150,000 a year to avoid big job cuts.

The Australian sharemarket is improving for the third time this week, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) up 1 pct or 43 pts to 4199.4. This makes it the second biggest improvement for local shares this month. All 12 sectors are trading higher, with the energy sector by far the biggest outperformer thanks to solid production numbers from Woodside Petroleum (WPL) and Santos (STO).

Stocks of major Australian mining firms plummeted to a record low since the global financial crisis, fueling speculations on the longevity of the resources boom.

By Adrian Ash at BullionVaultEven paying July/August's top price for gold has averaged 5.1% returns by New Year's since 1968.

In between refining Yahoo!'s vision and turning around the firm, new company Chief Executive Officer Marissa Mayer would also need to take a maternity leave a few weeks in October,

Flexible Investing to Become a Relaxed Investor

According to reports from a Business Magazine released on Monday, Marks & Spencer, a retailer for Bellwether, has recorded its worst sales performance for a quarter in a period of three and a half years. This year recorded the wettest April and June months and hammered the trade of women’s wear since records for them have been kept.

By Greg PeelThe Dow rose 103 points or 0.8% while the S&P gained 0.7% to 1372 and the Nasdaq jumped 1.

The local share market pulled back today following three consecutive sessions of gains, as investors elected to be cautious despite gains on Wall Street overnight. Weakness in mining stocks dragged on sentiment, as index leader BHP Billiton (BHP) fell close to the $30 per share level for the first time in more than three years. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) finished down 18.9pts or 0.5pct to 4156.4, after hitting an intra-day low of 4154pts.

The latest Android version from Google which is Android 4.1 Jelly Bean was first revealed during the Google I/O conference. This new Android version is said to be a "step up" from Android ICS and would bring about new and improved features.